Orange-bellied parrot sighted again at Maroubra Sydney

["Bruce Roubin" <>]

G'day,

We went to find the juvenile OBP today Thursday at lunchtime (1pm, Thurs Aug 21), and flushed it closer than expected, off some coastal rosemary shrubs right next to the track to Magic Pt -  about 40m east of the large white Commonwealth sign re "trespassing" - this is just in front of a clearing in the heath around a falling stream, sooner than the sidetrack where it was reported from last Saturday (by Edwin Vella).

It flew off and landed only a short hop away (about 8m), but again flushed and did another similar bound on attempted approach. A 3rd attempt flushed it off up the back of the clearing, where it couldn't be found. On walking back around 4pm, it flushed again from the same rosemary shrubs right near the track, but this time settled on some dead branches of a tree just up the bank.

We were able to view it for about 5 mins from a distance of only 6m, perched facing us, with 16x magnification on the spotting scope. The richness of the orange on the belly was surprising for us, given that the field guides seem to indicate a pale or faint shade of orange for the juvenile.

In the light we viewed it, there appeared to be a royal-blue against a black margin of the wings, which was also surprisingly distinctive.  A bluish spot was visible above each eye at the forehead.

The position in which it perched unfortunately did not reveal the bands well, so we were unable to find the letter on the blue band.

Good luck with same for anyone else giving it a try.

 

Regards

Lynn & Bruce Roubin